The Fondation B.IN.G. Bibliothèque Internationale de Gastronomie arose out of the enthusiasm of a group of scholars and of devotees of gastronomic culture, brought together through the initiative and drive of Orazio Bagnasco. The Fondation is obviously non-profit-making and its purpose is to guarantee the conservation, cataloguing and amplification of the bibliographical heritage, which through an attentive and serious policy of acquisition has gradually been formed over the years, and all this valuable material is made available to scholars.
So as to enable direct access to this material the B.IN.G. is endowed with a reading-room open to scholars, specialists in the field and journalists. The various collections gathered in the B.IN.G. form a Library of c4000 books, printed and in manuscript, in Italian, Latin, French, German, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Swedish and Dutch, produced in the period stretching from the XIV century to midnight of December 31,1899. In the B.IN.G. gastronomy is understood in a wide and detailed sense as to include texts on diet, hygiene, agronomy, agriculture, etiquette, history of foodstuffs, as also recipe books, books on the representation of festivals, banquets, rituals, and poetry on the theme of food, etc.